


My Love is Vengeance That's Never Free

by buzzedbee20



Category: White Collar
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s04e10 Vested Interest, Gen, Parent-Child Relationship, Season/Series 04, Season/Series 04 Spoilers, What-If
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-12-09
Updated: 2016-12-09
Packaged: 2018-09-07 12:03:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8800144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/buzzedbee20/pseuds/buzzedbee20
Summary: What if the answers Neal Caffrey has been looking for are locked inside the mind of a man who is unable to answer them? An alternate take on episode 4x10 "Vested Interest".





	

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own the characters of White Collar, but I have had this story in my drafts folder for almost a year now. I hope its enjoyed.

Neal Caffrey sat inside the hospital room staring at the man in the bed. Sam. This was the man that Ellen had told him to trust with her dying breath. Now he was lying in a hospital bed, unconscious. But who was he?

Neal had just finished asking Peter to run Sam’s DNA from his blood-spattered handkerchief when both he and Peter had been caught off guard by Mozzie shouting for them from outside the safe house. Sam had collapsed, and it took the strength of them both to get him into the car. Once he was situated, and they determined that he was still breathing, Peter wanted to take him immediately to the hospital. Mozzie was against that plan, but Neal was the one to make the decision.

“Listen, we can take him to the hospital and still keep him under the radar. I’ll do the paperwork.”

Peter reluctantly agreed, with one condition. Since the man who had attacked ‘Sam’ was still at large, he insisted that there be an FBI protection detail outside the hospital room. Neal didn’t argue. He couldn’t, he was too busy trying to control his fear and confusion over the situation. If Sam didn’t wake up, where would he get his answers? Would the man who attacked Sam come after him next? or Peter?

Mozzie was long gone by the time the doctor had told Neal and Peter that Sam had a very serious concussion, there was slight swelling in the brain, and all that could be done was to wait for Sam to wake up on his own. Neal said that he would stay at the hospital, and Peter didn’t argue with him, just mentioned that he would go to the office and try to get a rush on Sam’s DNA.

Neal knew it was for the best. Even if Peter was wrong and Sam was who he said he was, it was still better to know who you were dealing with. Neal had to keep telling himself that. This was the only other living person that could tell him about his father. Who could tell him whether or not his dad was really innocent. Whether he really was a dirty cop who abandoned his family. Neal wasn’t sure he still wanted the answers to that question, especially since his inquiries had already caused him to lose Ellen. If his dad was out there, was he putting him in danger without knowing it?

Neal listened to the steady beeping of the heart monitor hooked up to Sam. He wished he hadn’t tried to keep going with the investigation. Part of him wished that Sam hadn’t even come back. If he hadn’t, he might have still been in danger but at least Neal wouldn’t have helped to bring the danger to him.

His cell phone vibrated, shaking him out of his funk temporarily. It was Peter. _DNA’s back. I’m on my way_ , the text read. They’d know who they were dealing with soon enough. Peter would know what to do. If he couldn't trust anything or anyone else, Neal knew he could trust in that.

Peter came to the hospital room a little while later. Neal could hear him greeting the guard on the other side of the door as he finished a text to Mozzie that nothing had changed. He looked up from his phone as Peter entered with a grave look on his face. He tried not to let his immediate trepidation show as he spoke up. 

"Hey Peter, what's going on?"

How's S-uh, how’s he doing?” Peter asked, nodding his head towards the unconscious man in the bed.

“No change, really, just sleeping.”

"Hm..Neal..." Peter started quietly, "we got the DNA test back."

"Yeah Peter I know that. What's wrong?" Peter was hedging, and he only did that when there was bad news. “What did you find out? Did you get a match?”

Peter continued to look like he’d seen a ghost but answered. “Yeah, we did. We uh, got a match.”

“Well? Are you going to tell me or are you going to stand in the corner keeping secrets?”

Neal smirked when that finally got a reaction out of Peter, even though it was only him rolling his eyes. Neal had had enough and got up to take the folder from Peter himself. He wasn’t expecting Peter to flinch away from him, but he had been acting skittish since he walked in the room. Neal glanced back at the room’s occupant before taking a deep breath and returning his gaze to Peter.

“Peter, either you’re going to tell me what’s in the file or you’re going to hand it to me, but I’m really tired and I just want to find out who Sam is.” Neal was glad he took the sincerity route, losing his patience would only cause Peter to return his attitude in kind.

Peter sighed deeply before responding. “You’re right, I’m sorry. You...deserve to know. Neal, the DNA test did match someone in the FBI database.” Peter handed Neal the file but kept talking. “The match was to you. Who we thought was Sam is actually your father, James Bennett.”

All of a sudden, Neal felt like the air left the room. His heartbeat pounded in his ears and his vision went out of focus. "Wh-what? Peter?” He blinked a few times and read the file. He’d seen enough DNA test results in his time as a consultant to see the plain facts of what Peter was saying. He couldn’t breathe. He felt light-headed.

“Whoa, Neal, hold on,” Peter tried to guide Neal to a chair, but he wouldn’t go. “Neal, calm down, come on.” He let himself be led out of the room, not really seeing where he was going, but trusting Peter to lead him. He vaguely registered Peter saying something to the guard before feeling himself be guided to sit on a bench. He stared at the floor. Sam was his father? All this time he’s been looking for him, and he was right there? How could he not have known? Why didn’t Sam-James, his _father_ -why would he con his own son?

“Neal. Neal. Here, take this.” He looked up to see a water bottle in his face. He grabbed it, and held it in his hand.

“No, drink it. Neal.” Peter used his authoritative tone, and Neal finally snapped back into the present.

“Thanks,” He said shakily. Drinking the water helped him come back to himself. if only enough to register that Peter was sitting next to him, now. He didn’t know where he’d gotten the water, but he could acknowledge that he hadn’t been operating at full awareness.

“Are you okay?” Peter asked after a minute.

“No,” Neal said, and huffed out a laugh that was closer to a sob than he’d intended it to be. “No, I’m not. I don’t...I don’t understand. How…” he trailed off, not knowing what he wanted to say. Peter put an arm around him.

“I’m sorry Neal. I don’t even know how to make this okay.”

“There’s nothing that can make this okay.”

“Yeah, you got me there. Listen, we found out who attacked Sa-James. It was Dennis Flynn Jr. He sound familiar to you?” Peter was trying for normalcy, and Neal could appreciate it, even if it was falling short of the mark.

“No, he doesn’t.” Sam or James might know, but it's not like they’d be able to ask him anytime soon. Peter seemed to read his mind.

“I guess the only person who could tell us, is S-James. Uh, I guess we’ll just have to wait for when he wakes up.”

“Yeah.” Neal looked up and could see his father through the window. The man he wished he could see, wished he could talk to, who he had unknowingly talked to, and interacted with many times. Now he might not even be able to talk to him ever again. His head and his heart hurt. “Can we leave?” Suddenly he wanted to be anywhere but there.

“Yeah, yeah, come on. Hey, do you have a taste for lasagna? Elizabeth’s got it on the menu. Its her mom’s recipe, she even uses ‘secret spices’, that she won’t ever tell me about.”

“Thanks Peter. I guess that’s fine.” He knew what Peter was doing. Dinner with the Burkes wasn’t going to fix what was wrong with him. But it might help.

“Don’t worry Neal, I’m not giving up on this. We’re going to get to the bottom of it, but lets come back to it tomorrow, when we can look at it with fresh eyes.” His friend looked concerned, and he tried to paste on his ‘Everything Is Fine’, smile, but his heart wasn’t in it.

“I know. Like you said, we’ll come back to it tomorrow.” Peter nodded in approval and started walking. Neal followed, glancing back at his father lying prone in the hospital bed one last time before turning down the hallway.

He didn’t know when he would get the answers he was seeking, but he could only hope that the man in the hospital bed would wake soon and provide him with them. One thing was clear to Neal, though. James Bennett had a lot of explaining to do.


End file.
